Hours after the Chicago Teachers Union summoned representatives from city schools to discuss negotiations, and following a day the union and city leaders traded barbs over counterproposals, classes finally were called off around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, continuing the city’s longest strike in decades into its 10th school day.

Andrew "AJ" Freund plays with toy cars at a family event in McHenry County. AJ was placed in a foster home at birth because he had drugs in his system, but his parents worked to regain custody. (Family photo)

The brutal death of 5-year-old AJ Freund shocked the Chicago area earlier this year, leaving countless people asking: How could this happen? The Tribune went looking for answers and found that AJ’s tragic story begins years before he was born.

It starts with the history of two troubled adults: his parents. Their chance meeting in early 2012 spiraled into a dysfunctional relationship fueled by drug abuse and violence. When their son AJ was born, he had drugs in his system and was placed in foster care.

They got clean and got him back — then fell apart again before his death.

A buckled jet stream weather pattern known as the Pineapple Express has sent warm weather from closer to the equator north to Alaska, setting records there, even as it’s forced below-normal temperatures south from closer to the Arctic and into the Chicago area. It’s looking more likely that Halloween weather in Chicago won’t be a treat.

Former President Barack Obama speaks during the closing session of the 2019 Obama Foundation Summit on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago on Oct. 29, 2019. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

With his Obama Presidential Center, former President Barack Obama wants to create a beacon that sends out a signal of hope to young organizers, leaders, community workers and change agents, he said Tuesday night. And he wants the center on the South Side.

Nine Democratic state lawmakers from Chicago say they won’t vote for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s real estate transfer tax proposal unless a significant amount of the money raised is dedicated to alleviating homelessness. At a City Hall news conference, Lightfoot said the demand for 60% of the real estate transfer tax revenue to go toward fighting homelessness is “never going to happen, obviously.”

The charges against Arroyo represent the latest in a series of ongoing federal probes that have rocked political circles from Chicago to Springfield. Arroyo is the third elected official to be charged so far, joining longtime Chicago Ald. Edward Burke and state Sen. Thomas Cullerton.

Production at the Bedford Grow, a marijuana cultivation facility, in Bedford Park on March 29, 2019. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

A Chicago witches’ meetup has over 400 members after only two years, as interest in witchcraft is propelled by spirituality, feminism and digital access. Experts offered many reasons for the popularity of witchcraft among young people, including that it’s a very customizable experience; it values sex, the human body and the natural world; and it’s free from the male power structures that frustrate many women and LGBTQ people.